New Music Monday—Claire Daly, Jalen Baker, Noah Haidu

Tune in on Monday, July 3 for New Music Monday and hear these new additions to the KUVO library.

Claire Daly with George Garzone: “VuVu for Frances”
The popular veteran baritone saxophonist, Claire Day has performed along the Front Rage several times over the years due to her friendship with Brad Goode. Daly’s previous recordings received substantial airplay on KUVO Jazz as well as nationally. This time out Claire opted to honor her life-long friend and confidant, Frances Ballantyne whom she calls “the consummate New Yorker”. Because Ballantyne love of jazz goes back to the golden era of jazz on Manhattan’s legendary 52^nd St aka “Swing Street, she was asked to select several of the songs on this new album. Daly invited her friend tenor sax man, George Garzone to augment her ensemble and upon learning it was for Frances, he said he’ll play his “vuvu” style for her, “vuvu” is George’s name for an airy, mellow, and melodic sound. After hearing this session, I exclaimed woo woo for vuvu!

Jalen Baker: “Be Still”
Growing up in Houston, Jalen began his music career studying to become a classical music artist then in 2017 while attending Columbia College Chicago he chose jazz to be his preferred music. Soon thereafter he began playing at jazz festivals representing Columbia College. From that exposure he was accepted to study at Florida State University where he earned his master’s degree. Mentored by Jeremy Pelt and Ulysses Owens Jr, Jalen organized his own group which we get to hear on this album “Be Still”. This recording, produced by Pelt, showcases the versatility of Baker as a vibraphonist and composer, in addition in Jalen’s own words; “this album features music that represents my growth as a human and musician”.

Noah Haidu: “Standards”
The young rising stand-out pianist Noah honors the 40^th Anniversary of Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio by launching his new recording of “Standards”. After his 2 previous highly acclaimed albums, Haidu pays homage to one of his piano heroes. Nine of the 10 selections of this session are standards with one original track by Noah Haidu. To guarantee the highest quality of playing as does Keith Jarrett, Haidu is accompanied by bassists Buster Williams on 4 tracks and Peter Washington on the remaining songs. The mega-talented Lewis Nash plays drums and alto saxophonist Steve Wilson appears on3 tracks. The goal of Noah is that this recording brings the listener the same happiness that the Jarrett Standards Trio brought him.

Now in its 21st year of debuting the latest arrivals to the KUVO Jazz library, many of them are played ahead of their official release date. In addition to the music comments, I’ll provide a few tidbits about the artist, if it’s a new or an up-and-coming artist. It all begins at Noon every Monday.

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